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Mortal Engines | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Reeve
Creator: David Frankland
Publisher: Point
Category: Book
List Price: £6.99
Buy Used: £0.01
You Save: £6.98 (100%)
New (37) Used (74) Collectible (9) from £0.01
Rating:  49 reviews
Sales Rank: 11635
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Ed
Pages: 293
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5 x 0.9
ISBN: 0439979439
EAN: 9780439982221
ASIN: 0439979439
Publication Date: September 20, 2002
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Crease free spine
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| Customer Reviews: Read 44 more reviews...
What a surprise! September 27, 2008
P. Brodie (London, England)
I was presented with this book by a pupil of mine, as a reader for his weekly evening lesson. I read a couple of chapters each week and he would re-read the last few paragraphs. At the end of the first chapter I was not looking forward to the rest of the book. I thought it contrived and so far beyond the realms of probability that it completely failed to engage my interest. I suggested that he look for a different book. However, the following week he produced the same book again and, without any alternative reader, we continued. Within a few chapters, I was hooked. I had to exert self-discipline to prevent the book taking over the whole lesson and, by the time we had reached about a quarter of the way through, I used to anticipate the next lesson's instalment with impatience. I was gutted when the last lesson before the summer holidays was cancelled with only five chapters to go! Although I tried to predict what might happen next at various points, I found the imaginative twists and turns of the plot reapeatedly confounded me.
All in all, I found it stimulating due to its plot, its poetic language, its frequently dry and grotesque humour and its emotional portraits. Its range of vocabulary and widely informed referencing makes it a challenging read for today's average teenager and, therefore, all the more recommendable - to young and old alike.
 Great fun September 17, 2008
John Brown (Belgium)
I read this book because my 13 year old son gave it me to read. I was expecting a novel for children, and mostly that's what it is: lots of action, some wild ideas, plenty of humour. There's also enough to keep most adults interested though, with many references to events, people and places in our own world. It's good fun trying to spot all of them!
It's very much a fantasy novel, and the subject matter (mobile cities which eat smaller towns) may appeal more to boys than girls. I found the writing excellent, with good description, dialogue, humour and pacing. The characterisation of some of the main characters is surprisingly weak, whereas some other, lesser characters really stick out.
It's fairly standard goodies vs baddies stuff, with the baddies being (mostly) stereotypically geeky engineers. But there are some surprises and plot twists which definitely put this in the top league of 'children's books'. This must be one of the few popular books with a historian and an ugly, partially blind girl as two of the main characters.
Overall an excellent book with plenty to keep you hooked
Probably the most original novel I have ever read! April 26, 2008
G. A. Hurd (United Kingdom)
One of those series -like Phillip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' -branded a children's book but stands better than most adult sci-fi/fantasy. The world is jaw-droppingly realistic; the characters believable, their motivations as complicated and sophisticated as an adult can appreciate but never overworked. Phillip Reeve has a style so easy, your brain becomes totally engaged and it requires genuine discipline NOT to finish the book in one sitting.
The start of 'Mortal Engines' is marginally weak -a Young Adults book, but don't be put off, this only lasts a few chapters: the rest is dazzling. The other three books in the series are just as gripping; if you do not find yourself emotionally bonded to at least one of the main characters, the story makes up for it; the 'support' characters are people just as real as the leads; the world is just as good as real life -I don't think any author creates a story so aparently COMPLETE as Phillip Reeve. The ideal read for the reader jaded by the massed phalanxes of generic sci-fi/fantasy.
P.S. One of the few books where you cannot see the ending until you get there. (This stands for each in the series: 'Mortal Engines' 'Predators Gold' 'Infernal Devices' 'A Darkling Plain.')
Stunning Plot March 27, 2008
Alexandra Birchall (UK)
In the future, the world is a barren place, with cities and towns moving. Large cities like London chase and capture towns, capturing their people and using their resources whilst trying to avoid giant cities in the Great Hunting Ground. The cities are built in tiers, with the most important people in tier one. Tom is a third-class Apprentice in the museum from tier four. When the sinister Hester Shaw attempts to kill the very important Valentine, he is thrown off London to attempt the impossible; survive in the vast wilderness with Hester. He finds out shocking facts about the Anti-Traction League, other towns and cities and goings on in London whilst struggling to survive and return to the city. Meanwhile, the glamorous Katherine Valentine from tier one attempts to sort things out in the city. Mortal Engines is an exciting, gripping book with an interesting idea of what could happen in the future. Although the story is a little confusing at times, I would recommend it.
It's a town eat town kind of world March 18, 2008
R. Nicholson-morton (Alicante, Spain)
Why am I reviewing a book published in 2003? Because it's the first in a series about the Hungry City Chronicles and the book covers and blurbs intrigued me. Aimed at teenagers, it's a good read for adults too. An action-packed adventure which oozes originality.
Over a thousand years in our future, when the earth has virtually been ruined following a very brief but devastating conflict, the Sixty Minute War, the seas are dry and many cities and towns have evolved into mobile fortresses.
It's a town eat town kind of world - all to do with Municipal Darwinism, where big powerful towns and cities attack weaker ones and utilise the building materials for fuel and ransack antiques and artwork for their museums and capture people for slaving in the engine-rooms. And London is on the prowl, it seems, heading into the dangerous hunting grounds...
Apprentice Tom Natsworthy manages to thwart an attempt on his hero Valentine's life but is repaid by betrayal and is cast out of the city, into the treacherous Out-country, with only the would-be assassin Hester Shaw for company. A fragile friendship develops between them and they are picked up by a wandering town and imprisoned, to be sold as slaves...
Their adventures are daunting and exciting, with plenty of chapter-end cliff-hangers.
In opposition to the marauding towns and cities is the Anti-Traction League who have spies everywhere. Then there are the air-pirates and their balloon craft. To make matters worse, searching for Hester is the Resurrected Man, Shrike, mostly metal and virtually indestructible.
The descriptions of the cities and towns, the forbidding environment and the marvellous individual characters make reading this book a joy. There are heroes and villains and even the bit-players are sketched-in sympathetically. The grimness of the bowels of London city - with its turd tanks, the colours of the air-base Airhaven and the multi-national pirates, the magnificence of the scenery viewed from the air, all combine to present a visual feast just crying out for a movie.
Then there's the pirate town of Tunbridge Wheels. The Mayor of this town, Chrysler Peavey, is a fascinating character who only wants to better himself - and have an easy life at others' expense, of course...
And hovering in the background is the mystery of MEDUSA and the dreadful power that London's mad mayor is about to unleash... The ending was satisfying and sad and made me want to buy the next adventure straight away!
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